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Hewlett-Packard

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24 TB Capacity Upgrade

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1

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HPE StoreOnce

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Product Reviews

Rated 4.3 out of 5 by 31reviewers.

Rated 5 out of 5 by Consultant251 Deduplication Alghorithams still require enhancement but it has a very flexible integration with HP Data Protector. Valuable Features:* StoreOnce Catalyst Store* VTL Emulation* Extensive disaster recovery options* Federated deduplicationImprovements to My Organization:Due to high speed and multiple simultaneous backup session our backup window is reduced remarkably, data throughputs are mentioned follows:* Up to 100 TB/hr of backup performance with StoreOnce Catalyst* Up to 40 TB/hr of native backup performance* Up to 40 TB/hr of restore performanceRoom for Improvement:Deduplication Alghorithams still require enhancement.Use of Solution:We have been using HP Data Protector for almost 5 years.Deployment Issues:HP Solution delivery team implement this solution, deployment was quite smooth within time constraints.Stability Issues:No such issues faced.Scalability Issues:768 TB raw (512 TB useable). Good enough for enterprise wide backup solutions.Customer Service:Excellent, because of local presence of HP is KSA.Technical Support:Very Good.Previous Solutions:I have working experience with EMC Data Domain. HP StoreOnce is offering almost the same features. It has a very flexible integration with HP Data Protector.Initial Setup:It was a straightforward procedure.Implementation Team:HP Implementation team delivered this solution.Other Solutions Considered:Yes, EMC Data Domain.Other Advice:It is better to opt for HP implementation services also.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. October 2, 2016

Rated 4 out of 5 by Ahmad (Farouk) Abo Alafa Compression and replication are the features of this product that are the most valuable to me. Valuable Features:Compression and replication are the features of this product that are the most valuable to me.Improvements to My Organization:We moved from MSL and VSL, building a number of virtual libraries with different LTO formats and removing hundreds of physical tapes that we replaces with virtual replicated tapes.Room for Improvement:I would like to see improvements regarding segmentation or the size limitations per library.Use of Solution:I have used this solution for 15 months.Deployment Issues:Segmentation was one of the requirements. The HP team promised us that it is possible, but it wasn't available.Technical Support:Technical support is excellent.Previous Solutions:We previously used MSL and VSL, and we moved to this product because it supports virtualization (D2D).Initial Setup:Initial setup was very simple.Implementation Team:We implemented it in-house. I think the solution was easy to implement using HP Data Protector 8.01 at the beginning. The tricky part is the upgrades. I recommend upgrading the FW to latest the stable release before configuring.Cost and Licensing Advice:The price is good.If you are going to replicate, buy the two-way license.Other Advice:I recommend this product.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. August 4, 2016

Rated 4 out of 5 by Philip Sellers We brought it in for the dedup technology and since we were looking to get better backup times . Valuable Features:It was primarily about the deduplication technology, and that's what brought it in the door for us. We were looking for something to offset our backup procedures so that we would be able to get better backup times, but also better restore time-frames for our backups.Room for Improvement:The issues that I have aren't necessarily with the hardware itself. It's with our backup solution, it's with some of the other things that interact with StoreOnce, and it may be environmental. I don't see any deficiencies in the hardware solutions there.Use of Solution:We are on our third generation of devices. Its been around 5 years.Stability Issues:It's very stable.Scalability Issues:StoreOnce scaling has been good. We've done a couple of field upgrades, we've had three different generations, actually we're down to two now, we retired one of the out already. But we've done a field upgrade of both of those which went really well. As far as the top end capabilities, we're not there. Both of our current generations still have headroom for growth.Technical Support:7/10 - it can be hit or miss. We get better luck with our premium support levels. We have a named TAM for some of our systems, that works out well. Escalation managers are always good. There is good technical talent, it's just sometimes hidden by first level support. That can be difficult and frustrating at times, but over ten years working with them, I would say today it's probably a little better than when I first started. Actually, I would say it's probably improved a good bit since I first started working with them, but it's still got some room to go.Initial Setup:I wasn't heavily involved with the deployment. Again there is a little bit of learning curve to StoreOnce, and how it lays out, and different features within it. We had some consulting services when we first set it up, and I don't think we had the best advice, which led to a reconfiguration down the road.Other Advice:I don't think it has anything much to do with the StoreOnce solution from a hardware perspective. That seems to be really solid, but you've got to have a Symantec NetBackup, HPE Data Protector, or Veeam to really enable you to get the most out of these products. Your mileage may vary based on your backup vendor, and how well they support the hardware.Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. July 4, 2016

Rated 3 out of 5 by PM436379 It limits the amount of storage that we have to purchase. My biggest irk is the people who will be managing these things are going to be more your system administrators. They're not Java programmers. Valuable Features:Compression of storage. Based on the amount of history that we've got to keep, it limits the amount of storage that we have to purchase.Improvements to My Organization:It's more of a backup functionality. Backup really doesn't make a business do any better or any worse. It's really just storage of data. It's not a user interactive type process. They all go through and store data fine and they all go through and restore data fine. Is there really any business advantage of StoreOnce over some of the other vendors? Not really. It's just that we chose to work more with one vendor, so we get a better cost when we actually purchase stuff.Room for Improvement:The beef I have not only with StoreOnce, but also all the Ops Bridge, the people who will be managing these things are going to be more your system administrators. They're not Java programmers. They want to try to do all the API's where people have to know Java to interface with them.Whereas system administrators, they want to script stuff and so they're starting to turn a lot of their API's into command lines, which are wrappers around the Java API's. Lack of foresight of that is probably one of my biggest irks with HP on that.Stability Issues:I have no data on it as it's too soon in our use.Previous Solutions:We've used NetBackup, then there's been some home-grown ones that people have done. StoreOnce is a backup solution with Data Protector in DDD and streaming through offsite storage. It works just fine. The big thing again, we come down to, is by having those products primarily with one vendor, we get a much better cost point.Initial Setup:We had no issues deploying it.Other Advice:It works well with Data Protector. It works well with 3PAR and that's our environment and so it's a vendor specified solution.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. June 27, 2016

Rated 5 out of 5 by AndrewCrawford Very reliable, great deduplication rates. Valuable Features:The most valuable features for us are the very high-performance deduplication and high deduplication rates. These features make it quite cost-effective.Improvements to My Organization:We previously used a tape-based backup system with a tape library and off-site storage of tapes, which was very expensive to run. It also wasn't terribly reliable and we had constant issues with capacity.We migrated to StoreOnce and we're using the copy feature of StoreOnce to copy to another unit in a different location. We have the primary unit that we do backups to, and then we have another unit in our disaster-recovery site, and all the backups are copied over the WAN to the disaster-recovery site. It uses deduplication to do that too, so the bandwidth requirements are quite low.So we have a completely tapeless backup flow that is very low impact on our network and has very high reliability.Room for Improvement:StoreOnce actually does pretty much everything we need. There are quite a lot of features that we don't use at the moment such as virtual tape library and NAS.But the initial network setup is not intuitive, and this could be improved.Use of Solution:I've used it for 18 months.Deployment Issues:We've had no issues with deploying it.Stability Issues:StoreOnce has been 100% stable in the eighteen months that we've been using it. We actually purchased an additional unit for a third location after the initial purchase of two units on the basis of the performance and reliability.Scalability Issues:We've had no issues with scalability.Initial Setup:StoreOnce is not really complicated to set up. It's probably something that can be done by a typically-skilled systems administrator in a day or a half-day.Other Advice:I think as long as you have a clear understanding of what it does and you're quite sure that that's what you need, then there isn't a better product. Certainly, in terms of the ease-of-use and reliability, we haven't had any issues with StoreOnce. It's definitely one of the products that I would recommend to anyone.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. February 10, 2016

Rated 4 out of 5 by Remco van Wessel They provide me with everything in one box and I don't need to worry about other equipment. Valuable Features:We just put two StoreOnce appliances in our data center. They provide me with everything in one box and I don't need to worry about other equipment.Improvements to My Organization:We can focus on things more important than performing backups. It has everything we need and I think we've made a good decision.Room for Improvement:We want to be able to use Resource Monitoring and Control (RMC), but that won't come until the next version of the StoreOnce software. Now we're using Data Protector.Stability Issues:It's been up and running now for four months and we haven't had any issues.Scalability Issues:I just say I need X terabytes and I'm done. At the moment, we have around 150TB and we expect to grow because we're going more and more to video. We have four newspapers and an online presence with videos embedded in our stories.Previous Solutions:We were using a very old backup platform with tapes and an older version of Data Protector. We upgraded Data Protector and bought StoreOnce.Other Advice:I think you just have to experience it. You'll see that companies that use it have a good experience with it.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. January 4, 2016

Rated 4 out of 5 by Kev Lamb It allows us to complete daily backup and restore tasks quicker than from physical tape, but it needs further integration with NetBackup to allow the use of catalyst storage as well as AIR. Valuable Features:The use of the OST product for NetBackup AIR has been the most valuable feature as this allows seamless Disaster Recovery options.Improvements to My Organization:The B6200 allows us to complete daily backup and restore tasks quicker than from physical tape. Also, we can use the replication of deduplicated backups to our offsite facility rather than sending lots of tapesRoom for Improvement:Further integration with NetBackup to allow the use of catalyst storage as well as AIR would be an improvement.Use of Solution:I have been using this product for approximately five years.Deployment Issues:When we first obtained the B6200 we did fill the disks due to our lack of understanding of how the the storage sets worked, which caused us an issue as the system at the time shutdown the F/C connections to stop any further data being sent to it. HP had to become involved in restoring the system, but this problem has now been addressed with new firmware.Stability Issues:With the older firmware we did have problems with the B6200 crashing with kernel problems, though this has now been addressed with the firmware updates.Scalability Issues:We have not had any problems with the scalability of the B6200.Customer Service:I have used HP services on a few occasions when setting up new functions and for problem resolutions and have found the service to be very good.Technical Support:The technical support has been very good and the specialists know the product and can resolve the issues that were presented to them.Previous Solutions:We switched from the HP VLS12000 system to the B6200 as the we wanted to use a full disk based backup solution rather than a Virtual Library. Also, the B6200 provides the support for NetBackup AIR.Initial Setup:We had a three-day onsite training course, so we found it fairly straightforward, I have since changed the configuration to accommodate NetBackup AIR and followed the HP documentation, which was easy to navigate and implement.Implementation Team:The set-up was completed by HP services.Other Advice:The HP StoreOnce range is great if you are running NetBackup as it integrates well with the backup product, the deduplication rates are very favorable, and it also allows the use of the DR option using AIR.Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. November 16, 2015

Rated 4 out of 5 by ChrisJones It allows us to centrally control and store all backup data with minimal effort and administration, although performance during restores needs improvement. Valuable Features:Federated Catalyst Replication allows us to centrally control and store all backup data with minimal effort and administration, and also removes relying on onsite staff at remote locations to change tapes.Improvements to My Organization:Not every office has skilled IT staff, so changing backup tapes was always a challenge. A person was typically “burdened” with the task of changing tapes daily or weekly and would often be neglected for other priorities or be completely forgotten if the staff member was away or on leave. Now, there is no requirement for any staff member at remote sites to be involved in any task related to data backup and recovery.We averaged at least three missed backups a month due to issues with the right backup tapes not being in the drive at the time of a backup. This has been completely eliminated since moving to StoreOnce and using Catalyst Stores and Catalyst Replications since all data moves are automated and bandwidth friendly, so they complete well within our nightly backup windows, and tapes are only used at the Datacentre which is controlled by trained IT professionals. We now have no one to blame but ourselvesRoom for Improvement:* Other products are able to read and write directly to/from StoreOnce Catalyst Stores (Symantec NetBackup and Backup Exec, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP, Oracle and soon Veeam Backup & Replication). However, they cannot integrate with StoreOnce Catalyst Replication. The replication must be triggered by software such as HP Data Protector, which must first know about the data that exists on the Catalyst Store. Unfortunately, data written to a Catalyst Store by one of the other products is not visible to Data Protector, so automating actions to occur based on new data being written to a Catalyst Store is not available. This really limits the ability to integrate all backups in to the Catalyst Store using their own native tools (MSSQL Maintenance Plans for example) and leverage the Federated Catalyst Replication capabilities. All backups must be written by Data Protector use Federated Catalyst.* The performance of NAS/CIFS Shares on a StoreOnce is acceptable for a standard write operation, but performance during restores (such as Virtual Machine Restores from Veeam Backup and Replication) is unacceptable. This is being improved as more products natively support StoreOnce Catalyst but is not widely adopted as yet.Use of Solution:We have been using StoreOnce for approximately two years, and couldn't be happier. It's used across two main datacentres and over 15 remote sites that use a combination of the 4430, 4220, and 2620 systems. All StoreOnce systems run the same OS Version, currently 3.12.1. We do not use the VSA, as we strive to maintain physical hardware separation between our production data and disk backups. We backup data at all remote sites to a local StoreOnce device, then replicate it to Datacentre A, then again to Datacentre B, and then finally copy to tape for secure storage.Also in-use, is HP Data Protector 9.03 which controls backup of data into StoreOnce Catalyst Stores and automated object copy operations which utilise the HP StoreOnce Federated Catalyst to replicate backed up objects between StoreOnce Backup Systems. All data backups at remote sites follows the same routine:* Single Data Protector Backup Specification for all clients in the site.* Data Protector Disk Agents back up data to a single HP StoreOnce Gateway (we use one of the same disk agents being backed up to also serve as the gateway).* Data is written to a StoreOnce Catalyst Store at the local site.* Data Protector Post-Backup Object Copy Job with the “Use Replication” checkbox enabled is triggered automatically upon completion of the backup to replicate data to Datacentre A.* The StoreOnce Gateways at both sites trigger a Catalyst Replication where the StoreOnce's replicate the Data Protector Backup Objects from one StoreOnce to the other utilising source-side deduplication has dramatically reduce WAN usage (only blocks that do not exist are transferred).* Once completed, another Post-Backup Object Copy Job copies the data from the StoreOnce at Datacentre A to a similar StoreOnce at Datacentre B.* A final Post-Backup Object Copy Job then copies the data from Datacentre B on to LTO6 Tape.Using this process results in many restore options, and the entire process is automated. We can restore from:* StoreOnce at the remote site* StoreOnce at Datacentre A* StoreOnce at Datacentre B* LTO6 Tape at Datacentre BDeployment Issues:No real issues other than the change in mindset for our backup administrators and the increase in the number of jobs that are now configured. For a typical remote site the following seven jobs exist:* Daily Differential Backup (Monday to Thursday) to local StoreOnce* Daily Post-Backup Object Copy to Datacentre A* Daily Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre A to Datacentre B* Weekly Full Backup (Friday) to local StoreOnce* Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy to Datacentre A* Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre A to Datacentre B* Weekly Post-Backup Object Copy from Datacentre B to LTO TapeThere is also now the requirement to upgrade HP Data Protector to provide certified support for newer StoreOnce OS releases. HP Data Protector upgrades typically bring with them enough problems on their own.Stability Issues:We did experience an issue for many months where Post-Backup Object Copy jobs would remain stuck “In Progress” and never report any data movements even though the two StoreOnce devices successfully replicated data. The jobs had to be aborted and manually re-run. We experienced approximately five of these a week out of over 200 jobs that would run. This was eventually fixed in Data Protector 9.03, and a post-hotfix.Technical Support:The HP StoreOnce support team are very responsive and quick to react to problems and offer ongoing support and guidance. However, StoreOnce really shines when integrated with a backup product that utilises the StoreOnce capabilities to better protect your data. This is where the HP Technical Support breaks down. It is often difficult to have a team take ownership of a problem or admit there is a fault, the blame is often directed to someone else. Typically, we have found this to be more of an issue with the Data Protector Support than with StoreOnce, but being the same company it is quite jarring at times how little cross-communication and teamwork there is despite Data Protector and StoreOnce being so heavily dependent on each other.Previous Solutions:We previously used Symantec Backup Exec at remote sites to back up data locally to tape, and HP Data Protector at the Datacentres. Managing two separate products was difficult, particularly with staff trying to remain current on both products that have very different lifecycles. Since we already used Data Protector at the datacentres and HP StoreOnce is the most tightly integrated with Data Protector the choice to use StoreOnce was very easy. We did not evaluate any other disk backup products.Initial Setup:The initial setup was complex, at least compared our previous backup solution of each site being their own installation of Symantec Backup Exec, and only a couple of small jobs to maintain. We have a much larger number of backup jobs to maintain now, and must be very careful when running jobs during business hours as most jobs now have other jobs that chain off them, so you run one job and it could trigger many others.However, all configuration is done from a central location, all replications are triggered automatically, and we have full tracking of where every piece of backed up data is and where all of its copies also reside. A sore head upfront to have automated backups of every location and centrally replicated and multiple restore locations is well worth it.Implementation Team:We leverage the HP Level Two StoreOnce Startup Service which gave us access to the HP StoreOnce engineers for a few days. We were able to workshop our requirements and vision and come up with a solution that would technically achieve what we wanted. Unfortunately, HP Federated Catalyst depends heavily on HP Data Protector and there doesn’t seem to be much cross-skill of engineers between Data Protector and StoreOnce.Thankfully we have over eight years of in-house technical experience with Data Protector so we were able to leverage what we learnt during the StoreOnce Startup Service to expand upon the solution and deliver above and beyond what we thought was possible. To make use of Federated Catalyst I strongly recommend a deep understanding of HP Data Protector (it’s not as scary as it first appears to be).Cost and Licensing Advice:It is not abundantly clear, but the HP Catalyst License also includes the Catalyst Replication capability, so no other license is required if Catalyst Stores are the only backup target being used. StoreOnce devices cannot replicate Catalyst Stores automatically for you, the replication must be triggered by other software such as HP Data Protector.Depending on the backup product being used with HP StoreOnce, there may be disk backup capacity licenses also required. HP Data Protector requires Advanced Disk Backup Licenses for the usable capacity of the StoreOnce Systems (this is the native usable capacity, regardless of how much data you can actually store thanks to deduplication benefits).You can use a StoreOnce as a NAS/CIFS Target and also as a Virtual Tape Library. These backup targets can be replicated to other StoreOnce Backup Systems, however these require additional licenses.Other Advice:We do not have much experienc...Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions. October 11, 2015